Data is a valuable resource, and it’s already starting to become commoditized. Institutions that can collect, organize, and distribute data are making significant profits, and data technology is making its way into the hands of less and less tech-savvy users. At the same time, improvements to our technology and the increasing reach of that technology is making it cheaper to execute tasks that seemed unthinkable just a decade ago.

So what does this mean for the future of that data industry and for consumers as a whole?

Data Commoditization

We predict these five developments from the commoditization of data in the future:

1. Accessible predictive analytics.

Currently, predictive analytics is a branch of analytics that exists as more of a wish-list item than a feasible or reliable institution. It exists, and is in use by many companies, but it relies on a combination of state-of-the-art artificial intelligence and human data analysts to make it accurate (and allow it to make actionable, clear predictions). Predictive analytics also isn’t something available to the general public, or even small business owners with limited budgets and resources. However, as our access to data technology begins to scale, predictive analytics will become more accessible and may even become a “baseline” …